Work environments associated with certain industries, such as the mining and construction industries, are susceptible to undesirable dust conditions. Mining, excavation, and construction sites, in particular, are susceptible to dust due to the nature of the materials composing the worksite surface. For example, ground surfaces of coal, shale, stone, etc., erode easily, and thus tend to produce significant amounts of dust. Moreover, typical work operations performed at these sites exacerbate the dust conditions. At a mine site, for example, cutting, digging, and scraping operations break up the ground surface, generating dust. In addition, heavy machinery, such as haul trucks, dozers, loaders, excavators, etc., traveling on such sites disturb settled dust, thereby increasing the dust level of the air.
Dusty conditions can reduce the efficiency of a worksite. For example, dust can impair visibility, interfere with work operations on the site, and require increased equipment maintenance and cleaning. In addition, dust conditions may affect the comfort of worksite personnel. To alleviate these conditions, a water truck is often used to control the amount of dust in the air at the worksite. Specifically, the water truck periodically drives around the worksite and sprays the ground surface with water, which saturates the dust and causes the dust to remain at ground level.
Historically, little control has been exercised over the spraying of water at a worksite. That is, most water trucks available on the market today are fabricated by the end user from different subcomponents normally used for other purposes. For example, a truck body from a first manufacturer may be fitted with a water tank from a second manufacturer and with sprayers from a third manufacturer. Basic controls would then be connected to the different components and used to simply turn on the sprayers and turn them off again when manually manipulated by an operator of the machine. Little attention was paid to the pressure of the water, the volume of the water, the spray path of the water, the flow pattern of the water, etc. Although acceptable in some applications, this approach has been less than optimal.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0301134 of Anderton et al. that published on Dec. 2, 2010 (the '134 publication) discloses an exemplary mobile fluid distribution system with improved control. The mobile fluid distribution system of the '134 publication includes a power source, a hydraulic pump driven by the power source, a hydraulic motor driven by the hydraulic pump, a water pump driven by the hydraulic motor, and a plurality of spray heads in fluid communication with the water pump. The system also includes a ground speed sensor, a water pressure sensor, an engine speed sensor, a water shaft sensor, and a controller in communication with each of the sensors. The controller is configured to determine a desired water pressure based on a signal from the ground speed sensor and a mode selection from an operator, and responsively control the displacement of the hydraulic motor to achieve the desired water pressure in the selected mode. The displacement of the hydraulic motor is controlled based on the desired water pressure, a signal from the water pressure sensor, a signal from the water pump shaft speed sensor, and a signal from the engine speed sensor.
Although an improvement over existing control systems, the system of the '134 publication may still be less than optimal. In particular, the system of the '134 publication may not consider a sufficient number and type of factors affecting water pressure control under different conditions. In addition, the system of the '134 publication may not be capable of adjusting the way in which the displacement of the hydraulic motor is controlled. Without this input and capability, the system of the '134 patent may not accurately track desired pressure under all conditions.
The disclosed control system is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems of the prior art.